India’s relationship with the Awami League had a “historical context”, but the country has always dealt “with the government of the day”, its envoy in Dhaka has said.
Pankaj Saran said the Awami League was in the forefront of Bangladesh’s Liberation War in 1971 when the two countries were closely associated.“And at that time, as it happened, it was the party of the day and in that capacity various organs of the Indian state and the people of India were actually exposed to the Awami League,” he said in a television interview.
“So, there is a historical context to that reality,” he said, replying to a question about a perception that India is always favourable to Bangladesh government when a certain political party is in power.
The envoy said, “We are ready to deal with and we have dealt with the government of the day”.
“Whichever government is thrown up by the people and is elected by the people, India will be most happy to deal with them,” he said in
‘Maasranga TV’ recently.
His comments came amid Bangladesh’s volatile politics with the BNP,the country’s major opposition party, boycotting the Jan 5 elections
over its disagreement with the ruling Awami League on the poll-time government.
In the last five years of the Awami League-led government’s tenure,there had been extensive engagements between the two countries
including visits of Prime Ministers and President.
India, for the first time, rolled out $ 800 million line of credit for different projects and granted $ 200million to Bangladesh.
The visa regime has been eased and “significant” efforts had been made to curb border killings.
The ruling Awami League has pressed ahead to hold the elections,
despite international partners, like the European Union and the United
States refusing to send monitoring missions.
There is a perception that India is strongly backing the Awami League government, particularly after a visit by its foreign secretary Sujatha Singh, who insisted on the participation of a ‘maximum’ number of political parties – not all – in the elections.
Pankaj Saran, however, said the foreign secretary had been here not on a mission to mediate.
It was her first visit to familiarise herself with the Bangladeshi leadership in both government and opposition.
“She met every section of society in Bangladesh, not just the government or the ruling party,” he said, and that Singh was “absolutely clear that India will not interfere in the internal
affairs”.
“India wishes to see the consolidation of the democratic process and the democratic institutions in Bangladesh, and India wishes to see a process by which the aspirations of all the people of Bangladesh can be realised in a manner that is free, that is fair, that is impartial
and that has wide acceptability”.
He, however, said the two countries share such a long border that “neither India nor Bangladesh can remain unaffected or be indifferent
to what happens in each other’s country”.
And that, he said, made India interested in what happens in Bangladesh and “I am sure Bangladesh has a similar interest in what happens in
India”.
The envoy said the destinies of the two countries were “very closely linked, more than perhaps any other two countries in the region”.
But he insisted on resolving political crises through peaceful dialogues and, as a friendly country, it wished the solution would
enable the people of Bangladesh to realise their aspirations”.
“India’s friendship has and will always be with the people of Bangladesh.
“We want our relationship with Bangladesh to be sustainable, to be durable, to be broad-based, and to be inclusive, and we would wish to
proceed in that direction,” he said.
He, however, replying a question said generally a diplomat cannot make any kind of comments on a country’s internal affairs where he or she
is posted.
But he said as an envoy in any country, apart from being accredited to is host government, his job was to also maintain relationships with
his diplomatic colleagues and the diplomatic corps.
“I think that is a perfectly legitimate form of diplomacy which envoys all over the world practise and are engaged in,” he said when asked about diplomats meetings with each other on Bangladesh’s affairs.
He said India shaped its foreign policy in a way that enables them “to create an external environment which is conducive to our development”.
The efforts were to contribute “to a global order which is conducive to India’s economic development,” he said.
But for Bangladesh, he said, the relationship has been deep-rooted as the two countries were part of one country before 1947 partition and close association in 1971 war of independence.
He said over the last forty years “we have tried to build a relationship which is in a sense helpful to both India and
Bangladesh”.
He, however, admitted that there had been periods “which had been good for the relationship and periods which were not so good”.
But, the envoy said, the effort on India’s part has been “to reach out and develop a relationship which helps Bangladesh and helps India in
all walks of life in which the people are engaged in”.
He said the future of the relationship hinged on the younger generation. “The potential for cooperation and the goodwill is
actually enormous between the two countries”. – bdnews24.com
